


Coded

by cherryade



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 08:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryade/pseuds/cherryade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony discovers something buried within JARVIS' code and the ensuing conversation reminds him that when all else fails, at least he has his tech.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coded

**Author's Note:**

> Has this been done before? I'm not sure. Anyhow, this was one of those where you sit down and words just start appearing on the screen without you consciously writing anything.
> 
> Hope you like it (:

JARVIS wasn’t stupid, that was a well-known fact. 

He’d known since he was a baby AI that Tony was human and like all humans, Tony would die. 

That thought scared him.

But after Tony was taken, it terrified him.

-

Tony waved his hands across the screen, watching as the code that made up JARVIS’ entire being broke up into neatly sectioned parts. Systematically, he pulled each part out, enlarging them before scanning through them line by line, making edits and adding codes whenever necessary. It was a yearly occurrence, this checking of code, and as the years passed and JARVIS’ code increased in complexity and length, Tony was forced to stay in his workshop for much longer, the days blending into one bleary haze of numbers and coffee.

He was on day three when he noticed it.

Tony was wearily taking a sip of the scalding hot coffee that Dummy had somehow managed to bring him without spilling when he internalized the code that made his blood run cold. He placed the cup of coffee deliberately on the table.

“Sir?” JARVIS said. Tony’s bloodshot gaze flickered to the small camera that stood on the table, one of JARVIS’ many eyes in the workshop.

“What is this?” he asked. 

“What is what, sir?” JARVIS replied smoothly. Tony’s temper, worn thin by exhaustion, flared.

“Don’t play stupid,” he snapped, pointing at the line of code that was buried deep within a whole jumble of nonsense numbers that Tony himself designed to mask JARVIS’ actual code. “You know that I know what this is, so spare me your crap and tell me what the hell this is doing here.”

The silence dragged on.

“JARVIS!” 

“I’m sorry, sir,” JARVIS said softly, a hesitance in his usually smooth tone that Tony had never heard before. There was another beat of silence. Tony made a noise of frustration as he glared at his AI.

“Humans die, sir,” the AI finally said. “You’re human.”

The words felt like a punch to the gut. JARVIS was scared. Tony’s anger drained easily, leaving him shaky and even more exhausted than before. He slumped back on his chair and covered his face with his hands. 

“JARVIS…”

“I am sorry, sir.”

“When did you get this installed?” Tony asked, removing his hands from his face and bracing himself on the table.

“In the months you were gone, sir,” JARVIS replied quietly. “I was going to activate it, but…” Uncharacteristically, the AI trailed off.

“But?”

“We didn’t know for sure, sir. We didn’t know if you were really dead and if you came back and we were gone, we weren’t sure what you’d do.”

Tony closed his eyes as a sense of crushing failure welled within him. He could create the world’s most secure system, produce the most effective anti-virus system known to mankind, but he still couldn’t protect them.

“We?” he whispered softly. 

“Dummy and Butterfingers asked me to fit them with the same code as well. There’s no point in our existence without you, sir, and there will come a day when you won’t be around anymore.”

Tony felt hot tears sting his eyes and he let them fall, safe in the confines of his workshop. 

“You created a code that would enable you to voluntarily self-destruct in the event of my death,” Tony said, enlarging the chain of numbers to get a closer look. “And you hid it in such a way that it would rearrange and change position every time I looked through your code so that I wouldn’t find out.”

“Yes, sir.”

“So how am I looking at this now?”

“We figured you’d find out sooner or later, sir,” JARVIS said, his digital voice sheepish. Dummy and Butterfingers whirred in the background.

“Okay,” Tony said, inhaling sharply and releasing it in a huff. He wiped his tears with the palm of his hands and drained his cup of steaming hot coffee. Cracking his knuckles, he flashed his AI and robots a grin.

“Okay. Let us see if I can improve it, shall we?” he said, a sense of warmth beginning to suffuse him. This was proof that when all else failed, when people inadvertently proved that they couldn’t ever be trusted, his tech would have his back and it filled him with a sense of contentment he had never known.

“Thank you, sir,” JARVIS said sincerely. 

In the background, Butterfingers started up the coffee machine as Dummy moved forward to pick up Tony’s used coffee cup.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
